Page 66 - Studio International - April 1965

Picasso 'warts and all'

by G. S. Whittet

What do we know of the most famous living artist? which the trivia of their common life is recorded.
What do we want to know ? Picasso has never suffered That said, one must praise the revelation that the book
neglect from his revulsion to putting his own words makes of Picasso himself, his two legal wives and pre-
into writing. The number of people who have claimed vious friends and the one who succeeded Françoise,
to speak for him is legion—not one of them, it is sure, Picasso's dealings with his dealers, his fellow-celebri-
has his agreement. Certainly one cannot imagine he ties, his families and servants. We get to feel too the
gives his authority for the latest excursion into print. * absorption that Picasso has in himself and in his work,
Françoise Gilot, author of Life with Picasso, met him his utter self-reliance and sometimes almost spiteful
in May 1943. She was twenty-one. The encounter took pettiness. Most consistent ingredient of all is the spirit
place in a restaurant on the Left Bank when Picasso of Françoise Gilot who emerges as a woman of intelli-
invited Françoise and a friend to visit him in his studio. gence, integrity and the not unnatural self-sufficiency
But on the first visit he intimated that they should only of an artist who has not submerged her personality to
come again because they found him interesting not the man she lived with, even if he is Picasso.
just to see his paintings. He even found time to visit There are fascinating discourses by Picasso on his
Françoise's exhibition at a small gallery near the Place own work and that of other artists, even if his remarks
de la Concorde. What he said is quoted as verbatim as are scarcely original, e.g., 'I want to draw the mind in
are all the conversations that Picasso makes throughout a direction it's not used to and wake it up'. We read with
the book. (Carlton Lake is co-author and an art critic some amusement how Picasso would set the dealers
and in his foreword makes the claim' that Françoise Kahnweiler and Carré by the ears when they both came
knows exactly what she said, what Pablo said, every to buy paintings. Picasso seemed to take almost a
step of the way for the ten years and more they spent childish pleasure in exciting the acquisitiveness of
together"). He told her "You're very gifted for drawing. seekers after his work and played a game for his own
I think you should keep on working hard—every day.' amusement.
Such is the glamour attached to Picasso's name, we Some of the confidences that Picasso revealed to
feel almost compelled to read in these prosaic words a Françoise are so completely unusual one cannot believe
messianic utterance of consequence and revelation. them to be anything but the truth. Such as the behaviour
But they are in fact typical of the completeness with of Dora Maar, Françoise's predecessor, just after the
Liberation of Paris that culminated into her going into a
Picasso with sculptured clinic. Dora's reply to Picasso when he confronted her
portrait of Françoise • Life with Picasso. By Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake. 8 3/4 x 6 in. 352 pp.
Tete de Femme 1951 32 pages of illustrations. (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd.) £1. 15s. with the fact that he intended to live with Françoise will
surely go down as a monument to complete openness
in biography. It represents the price that decency pays
to truth. After the couple began to live together, we find
details of Picasso's working methods we can find no-
where else, including the changes in compositions of
which Françoise is the model. "Painting is poetry and
is always written in verse with plastic rhymes, never in
prose'. So Picasso is quoted. We learn of Picasso's
insatiable curiosity about what goes on in the world,
making him accessible to friends and acquaintances.
Matisse emerges as pure joy, a benevolent Buddha in
bed designing his papiers cones. Almost unbelievable
is the teasing and childish animosity between Braque
and Picasso—not in art but in such an affair as whether
Picasso can persuade Braque to invite him to stay to
lunch. The bitchiness that prevails among lesser artists
is not unknown to the masters and we have authentic
examples here.
One is so accustomed to reading of the generous
purchase grants that foreign museums receive as com-
pared with Britain's it comes as an amusing surprise to
learn of the efforts by museum officials in Antibes and
Paris to persuade Picasso to donate free examples of
his work. Picasso did in the end give several works—
according to Françoise Gilot, chiefly on the ground that,
if he sold them, the tax collector would gain most of the
money involved.
Then we meet Olga, his first wife, and one more
knot in the chain that eventually beat Françoise Gilot.
All through the book we feel that Picasso is inescapably
bound to his past as most old men are and his search
for the new was to provide diversion not a substitute
for his past existence. Yet we read one explanation :
'I had seen how Pablo refused to throw anything away,
even an old matchbox that had served its purpose.
Gradually I came to understand that he pursued the
same policy with human beings'.
The movements about France that the couple made